


To Fly

by memorydd



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Royalty AU, and leo isn't the one with the crown this time, bard leo, prince izumi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2019-02-10 01:46:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12901332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memorydd/pseuds/memorydd
Summary: The bard's music and smiles made Izumi feel alive and he realized that perhaps he never really tried to live at all.





	To Fly

**Author's Note:**

> i can't believe it took me this long to finally write a leoizu fic. it took a night of watching the live viewing of dream live to kick me into writing so here's the final product that totally did not go as planned.

Love was a silly concept full of lies and illusions. Izumi never thought that he’d find it, never believed in it. It was something that could only be found in fairy tales of prince and princesses, and how foolish he was as a little boy to think that some day he might have a happily ever after, sliding a ring made of happy promises and vows onto the finger of his own princess.

He had long discarded those stories, buried them along with his childhood to be a sitting puppet on a throne built by betrayals and a crown crafted by deceit. He’s a prince in name, but nothing more, his influence wielded by so called advisors and nobles who too were only family in name. Blood ran thicker than water they say, but nothing in his life had proven that to be true.

Perhaps the only truth in his life was his late mother, a beautiful woman whose gentle touches and smiles he could only feel in his dreams. She was also a noble woman who married his father in a political marriage.

Something that he too was expected to do soon.

The ball was extravagant as expected and he was also expected to choose someone tonight. Izumi’s grown tired of the whispers in his ears by people who meant well (for their positions, for their pockets, for their own ego) of which lady was the right choice He was also tired of the fake smiles of these ladies and irritating laughter, of how they would subtly touch him, their eyes seductive and hopeful to land a future with the next king in line.

He was so sick of it he wanted to vomit. But for how much he hated this room and this entire castle that was nothing more than a prison in disguise as a home, he still had enough decency and pride to excuse himself over to the far balcony, letting the cool evening air ease the weariness and sickening feeling twisting in the pit of his stomach.

He let out a long sigh, mumbling curses at this entire evening, at his entire life. Everything was suffocating, so annoy—

“Such sadness doesn’t suit such a beautiful face as yours.”

Izumi flinched at the unexpected voice. It’s familiar, he thought in the second that it took for him to turn his head towards its owner.

Bright green eyes under bangs the color of the setting sun greeted him and of course he knew who this person was. Izumi never talked to him before but he had listened to him spin songs of distant lands and fleeting dreams on the streets and caverns. Sometimes Izumi would seek this particular bard out to quietly listen from a distance, drawn by his sunlit voice and music that seemed alive.

His music made Izumi feel alive.

Izumi sucked in a breath letting the compliment that he had heard a thousand times over roll past him (but it’s the first time he had heard it in this voice and why just why did it sound different from all the women in that room—from anyone else) and asked, “What are you doing here?”

“Why, me and my company were invited to play at your ball, Your Highness!” he cheerfully announced.

Well, that did explain why he was well-dressed as opposed to his usual rouge-like attire. Wait…

Izumi scrutinized him. “If you were invited how come I didn’t hear your voice this entire time?” There was no way that he wouldn’t notice this person’s singing or playing, both having a unique style.

The seemingly permanent smile on that face grew wider, a spark of something lit up those green eyes. “Not to be rude, Your Highness, but how did you know what my voice sounded like?”  

Shit.

Izumi almost physically reeled back. If only words could be pulled back like strings. His mouth was dry but he spat out a defensive, “I just heard your voice right now, idiot. I don’t remember hearing it earlier.”

“So it’s not because you always come to hear me perform?”

He must have had the most unprincely and ridiculous look on his face right now if the smirk on the other’s face said anything. Caught red-handed.

He’s about to shoot down the (true) accusation, when the bard spoke up again, “I’ll never forget your eyes once I’ve seen them.”

Any words that Izumi had prepared got lost in his throat.

“You can hide your face, but I’ll always remember your eyes! They’re beautiful, like the sky! It reminds me of the sky and bird and clouds and of sunny days and stormy weather! When I see you I always get hit by this lightning strike of INSPIRATION!”

His arms were in the air, eyes sparkling, lips parted into a toothy grin and his voice was rising in volume with each word.

To say that Izumi was awestruck was an understatement.

“They make me compose for hours nonstop! It’s amazing, wahahaha!” He’s now right in front of Izumi, slapping his hands onto Izumi’s shoulders that were stiff with shock. “You’re amazing! Beautiful! Is this what love at first sight is like?”

He paused in his loud rambling long enough for Izumi to process those words and feel heat rise to his face but not long enough for him to fully make sense of them.

“First love! Now, that would make a good song! The prince and the bard. A forbidden love that surpasses social classes!” he went off again hands slipping off Izumi and flinging into the air. He stared at Izumi straight in the eye, stars dancing in green. “What do you think?”

Izumi was good at many things, including masking his emotions and handling unexpected conversations, but he could not handle this wild man in front of him, tangled up in his energeticness and brightness that made his eyes hurt.

“What the hell are you even saying?” he shouted, very flustered and very irritated. “You’re not making any sense!” His hands found his hips, lips curved into a frustrated frown. “Who do you think you are, touching me with those filthy hands and demanding me to entertain you and your fantasies? I could have you executed for disrespecting the crowned prince.”

Despite his commanding voice, despite his glare that would make most people cower in fear, the person in front of him was completely unfazed, smile still playing on his lips.

“But Your Highness won’t do that.”

He’s taken back once again. “How do you know that?”

“How do I know? Hmm…” The bard closed his eyes and hummed in thought. “How do I know? How do I know why the grass is green or why the sky is blue? Oh, I don’t know why, do I?” he concluded with a grin.

If there was something next to Izumi, he would have thrown it in the man’s direction. Since there wasn’t, he merely let out a loud groan. “You are soooo annoying!”

“And you’re soooo interesting!”

Izumi glared. “Are you mocking me?”

A look of horror. “Why, I would never, Your Highness!”

There’s a part of Izumi that had already given up on trying to converse with this person. How did he ever admire this person’s songs in the first place?

He slumped against the balcony, way too tired to further argue at this point. The man also went quiet as the music of other bards escaped the room into the outside air.

“You never answered my first question,” Izumi spoke up again, trying one last time to hold a normal conversation. “Why didn’t I hear your voice since the beginning of the party?”

The man hummed. “Oh, I was running late. Inspiration suddenly struck me so I stopped to compose on the way here before I forgot. When inspiration comes you have to act straight away!”

Izumi scoffed. “You sure are weird.”

“I think you’re weirder.”

Izumi raised an eyebrow at that. “Excuse me?”

Whatever threat in his voice went unheard. “I mean, only weird people would continue to live a life they’re not happy with.”

His words were like a punch to the gut, or more like a knife that dug in and twisted in Izumi’s most sensitive spot.

Izumi’s suddenly afraid to meet the other’s gaze, his eyes locked on his own feet that got him nowhere in life.

“How—”

“Your eyes always look so sad. They’re beautiful but they never smile.”

No one had ever said that about his eyes before. No one had bothered to look past his facade to see the real him—the real him that he tried to hide behind walls of insecurities and resigned fate.

Yet here was this one man, some wayward bard with an unbelievable talent for music and poetry, who was chipping cracks in his walls with an uncontrollable wildness and sharp eyes that shone brighter than the stars.

He’s so happy, so free.

Things that Izumi wanted but never had. More like he never really fought to have, and the realization made him want to laugh at his own patheticness.

“You should fly.”

Izumi finally managed to lift his head. The man was smiling at him, arms lifting up as if ready to soar, as if embracing the whole world. “Birds aren’t meant to be in cages. They are meant to spread their wings and fly. That’s what it means to be alive.”

He wanted that. He wanted—

“Then teach me how to fly.” The words left before he even fully knew what he said.

For the first time tonight, it was the bard’s turn to be surprised, eyes wide. Then he burst out into the loudest laugh that night. “Wahahaha! That was beautiful, Your Highness! You’re beautiful!”

How many times had he heard those words tonight? How many people did this man carelessly throw around that compliment to?

It didn’t mean anything. It shouldn’t mean anything, yet Izumi felt something funny inside his chest. Perhaps it was how he had said it—so open and honest.

“If that is what you want, then this humble servant shall grant it for you!” He reached out his hand towards Izumi.

Izumi hesitated for a moment, thinking of all that he had and all that could go wrong, but what could he lose when he didn’t have anything at all?

Against all logic, he took the other’s hand and it was warm against his.

And that’s how he found himself shrugging off his silk robes—his crown and his title—to follow this bard who he never once talked to until this night, how he descended the castle walls with a rope and almost lost his footing and how he rode away on horseback.

It was against everything that he should have done and would have ever done, but he’s no longer Prince Izumi Sena now, was he?

The wind brushed against his face and hair, the night scenery beyond the castle walls welcomed him.

He was free. Even if he had no idea what laid in front of him, that was all that mattered.

“What’s your name?” Izumi asked the man on the horse next to him.

The man grinned. “Leo.”

Izumi silently tested it on his tongue, liking how it felt.

“Thank you, Leo.”


End file.
